Revisiting the Discourse on Human-Nature Relationship in African Traditional Religion and the Responses to the Environmental Change

Abstract

The pantheistic view of nature enshrined in African traditional religious beliefs and thought systems has propelled a myriad of African scholars to assume that the environmental ethical position of ATR on human-nature relations is environment-centered. This is a result of the ineptitude of some scholars to critically analyze the complexity involved in the discourse on human-nature relations in traditional African religious beliefs, borne out of an ethnocentric mindset to eulogize ATR. An in-depth understanding of African traditional religious environmental ethics requires a full grasp of African ontology. On this note, to clear this age-old misconception about Traditional African notions on human-nature relations, this research aims at simplifying the complexity or ambiguity surrounding the discourse and brings to the fore the anthropocentric view of African Traditional Religion and environmental ethics on human-nature relations. The paper argues vehemently that African religious belief in human-nature relations is absolutely anthropocentric.